Carey worked at the Mercury News California from 1967 to 2016 as a projects reporter and investigative correspondent, covering the defense industry, the rise of Silicon Valley, the financial affairs of Ferdinand Marcos and other topics.
After receiving an economics degree from the University of California, Carey started his journalistic career as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner in 1964.
[2] For the San Jose Mercury News, Carey undertook a number of local, national, and international assignments, ranging from fraud and waste involving American charities in Mexico immigration and the influence of money on the California Legislature.
The series of stories, which was written in collaboration with Katherine Ellison and Lewis Simons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1986.
Four years later, Carey's investigation of the collapse of a freeway structure during the Loma Prieta earthquake helped the Mercury News garner another Pulitzer Prize.